Regulation of Nano Silica on Mechanical Properties of Gymnastic Artificial Turf

A new type of LLDPE/nano silica (SiO2) composite based artificial turf fibers with excellent tensile property and abrasion resistance is introduced in this paper. The effect of SiO2 loading on properties shows that the tensile force and elongation at break reached the maximum value when the SiO2 content is 6%, and the abrasion loss of monofilament fibers get to the lowest point. Turf wear test indicates that after 12000 cycles test, the surface morphology of artificial turf weaved from monofilament fibers showed serious abrasion and branching phenomenon of neat LLDPE, while only slight abrasion and branching phenomenon occurred for the artificial turf filled with 6% nano SiO2. SEM images of cross sections of monofilament fibers show that nano SiO2 had a good dispersibility in monofilament fiber matrix.